Water is top priority for House speaker

Don’t ask House Speaker Joe Straus about the Boy Scouts controversy over gay membership. “I have two daughters,” he quipped Wednesday. “It’s not an issue I care to be distracted over.”

Instead, the San Antonio Republican said his top priority this session is solving the state’s water problems, and he doesn’t expect much of a fight from his fellow House members. During a live interview sponsored by the Texas Tribune, Straus said he expects he’ll have enough votes to spend $2 billion from the state’s rainy day fund on water projects, as proposed by Natural Resources Chairman Allan Ritter.

“I can’t imagine anyone would be against a solution to our water problems in Texas,” Straus said.

The House speaker was less committal about dipping into the rainy day fund to attack another problem: transportation. He said he was open to the idea and also would consider raising some transportation-related fees such as the cost of a driver’s license.

Don’t, however, expect lawmakers to pour an extra $10 billion into public education this year, as Judge John Dietz suggested may be necessary to adequately fund the state’s schools, Straus said.

Straus said the state may be able to fund some “targeted areas” in education, though he didn’t elaborate. He also avoided specifics on how Texas could expand Medicaid but he didn’t rule out the possibility, if the federal government would allow the state to ensure “that these patients had some skin in the game.”